डॉ. सुखात्मे - नीलफलकाच्या निमित्ताने

आजच्या स्वातंत्र्यदिनी भारतमातेच्या एका सुपुत्राबद्दल लिहावं वाटलं, म्हणून ही पोस्ट. आजवर अनेक क्षेत्रात अनेक महान हस्ती होऊन गेल्या. पण बहुतेकदा त्या त्या क्षेत्रातील लोकांनाच त्यांच्या कार्याची महानता जाणवते. इतरांपर्यंत ती फारशी पोहोचतही नाही. कधी कधी तर अगदी आपल्या घरापासून हाकेच्या अंतरावर राहणाऱ्या दिग्गजांचीही आपल्याला माहिती नसते. "पुणे ऐतिहासिक वास्तू स्मृती समिती"च्या नीलफलक लावण्याच्या अतिशय स्तुत्य अशा उपक्रमामुळे आपण सामान्य लोक निदान आसपासच्या परिसरातील ज्येष्ठ - श्रेष्ठांना ओळखायला लागूत.

नीलफलकाची ही कल्पना मुळात लंडनमधली. लोकमान्य टिळकांच्या तिथल्या वास्तव्यस्थानी असा फलक लावला गेला, तेव्हा त्याने प्रेरित होऊन जयंत टिळक आणि दीपक टिळक यांनी असा उपक्रम इथे सुरु केला. काळकर्त्या शि. म. परांजपेंपासून सुरुवात करून आजवर या समितीने पुण्यात 116 फलक लावलेत.

मागच्या रविवारी पद्मभूषण पुरस्कार प्राप्त डॉ. सुखात्मेंच्या प्रभात रोडवरील "सांख्यदर्शन" या घरावर 116 व्या फलकाचे अनावरण झाले. डॉ. पांडुरंग वासुदेव सुखात्मे - संख्याशास्त्रात जागतिक स्तरावर पोचलेलं नाव. लंडनमध्ये संख्याशास्त्रात Ph. D. करून भारतात परतल्यावर बनारस हिंदू विद्यापीठात प्राध्यापक पदासाठी त्यांनी अर्ज केला. विद्यापीठाचे तत्कालीन कुलगुरू पं . मदनमोहन मालवीय डॉ. सुखात्मेंच्या शैक्षणिक गुणवत्तेने प्रभावित झाले खरे, पण संख्याशास्त्राचा भारताला गरिबीतून बाहेर काढायला कसा उपयोग होणार या पंडितजींच्या प्रश्नाला समर्पक उत्तर न देता आल्याने डॉ. सुखात्मेंनी याच प्रश्नाला आपलं जीवनध्येय बनवलं. बनारस विद्यापीठातील प्राध्यापकपद न स्वीकारता राष्ट्रीय कृषी संशोधन संस्थेत (ICAR) संख्याशास्त्रात संशोधक म्हणून त्यांनी काम सुरु केले. त्यांच्या अनमोल कार्यामुळे आज या संख्याशास्त्र विभागाचा विस्तार होऊन एक नवी संस्था IASRI उभी राहिलीये. भूक, कुपोषण या समस्यांवरील त्यांचं काम जगभर नावाजलं गेलं आहे.

केंद्र सरकारच्या सांख्यिकी व कार्यक्रम कार्यान्वयन मंत्रालयाच्या वतीने दर दोन वर्षाने एका ज्येष्ठ संख्याशास्त्रज्ञाला "डॉ. सुखात्मे पुरस्कार" दिला जातो. 2003-04 साली डॉ. बी. के. काळे तर 2011-12 साली डॉ. जे. व्ही. देशपांडे अशा दोन पुणेकरांना या पुरस्काराने सन्मानित करण्यात आले आहे. साहजिकच या नीलफलकाचे अनावरण डॉ. जे. व्ही. देशपांडे यांच्याच हस्ते करण्यात आले. त्यामुळे डॉ. सुखात्मेंच्या कार्याबद्दल डॉ. देशपांडेंच्या तोंडून "सांख्यदर्शन" मध्ये ऐकायला मिळणं आणि त्यानिमित्तानं अनेक संख्याशास्त्रज्ञांना भेटणं ही माझ्यासारख्या संख्याशास्त्राच्या विद्यार्थिनीसाठी पर्वणीच होती. शिवाय पद्मश्री डॉ. सुहास सुखात्मेंची भेट आणि त्यांच्या तोंडून त्यांच्या वडिलांच्या आठवणी ऐकणं हा तर एक अनपेक्षित बोनस होता. अशा रीतीने स्वातंत्र्यदिना पूर्वीचा रविवार एका उत्तम कार्यक्रमात सहभागी होण्याचा आनंद देऊन गेला.

If only - 2...

If only - 1...

Would it have hurt God to be a bit more systematic and create identical human beings, with identical thoughts… There wouldn’t have been any confusions, misunderstandings. World would have been a happier place and then people would have really believed in God. So, in the end it would have been a benefit to the God as well. Why didn’t he think of His own profit at least?

But if you were happy, would you really go to God just to thank him for whatever he has offered. If everyone around you is equally happy as you, you start thinking that getting this is your right and not a favour by God. So, no need to thank him. So, if God fulfills your wishes automatically, he won’t get any offerings. Seems God is far more foresighted and smarter than us. That’s why He is happy to keep us unhappy to secure His future.

But what about your future. We would have surely been happier to have like-minded people around us. There wouldn’t have been any quarrels, wars. So many lives would have been saved. Just imagine Duryodhan offering half of his kingdom to Yudhishthira, Ravan gracefully returning Seeta to Ram and so on. Surely, Mahabharata and Ramayana would have been a bit boring to read and watch. If everyone would have been logical and flexible, there would remain no uncertainty in life. It would be almost surely predictable.  कहानी में twist  आये बिना  climax का मजाही क्या ? So, it seems that God wanted our lives to be ‘खमंग’ and so he added so many flavours of dissent to it.

If you think a bit more calmly, is the person in front of you really illogical or stiff? Stubbornness on part of one person is irritating to you, but then are you not being equally stubborn in not accepting that person as it is? Why do you think that there is only one solution to the problem at hand? There may be an entire set of solutions, but the feasible region may vary from person to person as per his constraints. So, you have to optimize the results subject to the constraints of all those who are involved in this problem some way or other. That seems to be a real skill and it will be really thrilling if you could attain the optimum within the constraints of most, if not all. Because, the variety of these constraints is commendable. God seems to have put in a lot of thought and creativity in crafting each piece on this Earth, including yourself. So, why not simply enjoy being a part of this bigger plan and play your role in the best possible manner, instead of cursing God for this lovable diversity, without which the earth would have been a storehouse for the machine outputs?

If only - 1...

If only everyone in this world would have been a bit more logical, practical and flexible…

I think this is the thought which comes to most of us every now and then. I am not an exception. It seems that this thought is not going to leave me today. It is said that, “Compromise is an art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he got the biggest piece”, but for now, it seems that “Compromise is a situation where everyone is satisfied; not because that he’s got the biggest piece but because he thinks that he has made the biggest sacrifice”. Thus, compromises simply become deals, where you start calculating your profits, losses and net gains. And once these calculations start, you can’t resist the temptation of calculating the expected net gain in the near future, then in the far future and so on… You start thinking and planning about the future. All the self-help stuff you have read until now has taught you to be prepared for the worst. So, you start enlisting the possible obstructions on your route (your mind has the best creativity when it comes to visualizing the pits and falls, ‘coz “ मन चिंती ते वैरी न चिंती”), then think about the bypasses that you could take, expected cost for them and so on…. You are so lost in these, that you simply forget to enjoy whatever small piece of cake you have in your hand right now…

Then someone suggests the solution… Don’t look far away.

You somehow convince your mind to stay in the present after unlearning the things about future that you have read in those best selling stuffs. But your mind has been used to working so hard that it can’t stand still. It starts roaming aimlessly in your present as well. It starts comparing your piece of cake with what others have got in their hand – “that person over there has a smaller piece than mine, but it has got a cherry on it and the one here looks so yummy with such a thick creamy layer…”. Alas!, you got a new reason to be unhappy.

So, you can’t think of future, you can’t remain in present and you have already cried so much over the past that returning there is not even an option. It seems that God has been really cruel to mankind....